National AffairsOpinion

Monarchies still best places to live

By Andrew Philips \ May 5, 2023

There’s a coronation this weekend in London, I’m told. And in Canada the festivities wouldn’t be complete without yet another round of calls from the pundit class to ditch the monarchy.

“Charles is not my king!” goes the cry, and a new poll showing support for King Charles III has dipped below 50 per cent among Canadians is brandished as evidence for abolishing the institution.

The only thing lacking in this time-worn debate is evidence that doing away with the Crown would help to solve any actual problem Canadians are facing. But never mind, we’re told. Monarchy by its very nature is undemocratic, colonialist, racist, and so on.

The sticky point for anti-monarchists, however, is that this ancient, creaky system, as it’s been adapted to the demands of the 21st century, usually works remarkably well. There are many reasons for this, and no need to rehearse them all again. But there’s one fact that doesn’t often get mentioned because it seems so counterintuitive: as a general rule, monarchies in today’s world are, to a remarkable extent, more prosperous, more equal, and even more democratic than the alternatives.

Take a look at those lists of “best countries in the world to live in.” Invariably they’re dominated by monarchies. A widely cited one produced by U.S. News & World Report features seven monarchies among the 10 best countries for quality of life. The top three are Sweden, Denmark and Canada. The Netherlands and Australia are also on the list.

This is all the more remarkable because, depending on how you figure it, only about 20 per cent of the countries in the world are monarchies. But it’s clear that, on average, they punch far above their weight.

To be clear, I am not – repeat not – arguing that countries like Sweden and Denmark are prosperous, stable and fair because they are monarchies. Correlation, let’s agree, does not equal causation. But the pattern is so strong that it calls for some kind of explanation.

It’s also not just a phenomenon limited to northern Europe and the Commonwealth. In Asia there’s Japan, an ancient monarchy, but also Thailand, a monarchy considerably more prosperous and democratic than its neighbours Myanmar (a brutal military dictatorship) and Cambodia (which reverted to monarchy after a tragic chapter of genocidal Maoist rule). Plus Bhutan, a Himalayan monarchy renowned for measuring its success via “gross national happiness.” Shangri-La, indeed.

All this suggests one obvious fact, and one possible hypothesis.

The obvious fact is that having a monarchy, as such, does not hold a country back. Canada became one of the very best countries to live in on Earth with its current system. Nothing about that system prevents us from becoming even better.

My own hypothesis is that most of the countries where monarchies managed to survive into the 21st century figured out something very important: how to combine tradition with change, how to adapt what they have to the demands of modernity. Rather than inflict the trauma of a radical break with the past on their societies, they chose to evolve toward constitutional monarchy.

Mauro Guillén, a professor at the Wharton School of Business, wrote a fascinating essay in 2021 exploring why modern monarchies have generally delivered such high standards of living. The trick, he thinks, is that constitutional monarchy “works as a mechanism preserving what deserves to remain while incorporating what the circumstances call for.” He calls constitutional monarchy “a beautiful solution to a wide array of governance problems.”

Finally, let’s be clear: if you were starting right now with a blank sheet of paper and were asked to design a country on the northern half of North America (call it “Canada”), you wouldn’t make it a monarchy. You certainly wouldn’t install a monarch from another country.

But the point is we’re not starting with a blank sheet of paper. We’re dealing with centuries of history, practice and experience – a heritage that has led to remarkable success. If we’ve learned anything, surely it’s to build on that success rather than breaking the system that allowed it to flourish.

Andrew Phillips is a Toronto-based staff columnist for the Star’s Opinion page. Reach him via email: aphillips@thestar.ca

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